The following abbreviations and term are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description of the present disclosure.    3GPP 3rd-Generation Partnership Project    ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit    BLER Block Error Rate    BSS Base Station Subsystem    BTS Base Transceiver Station    CC Coverage Class    CN Core Network    CR Change Request    DCN Dedicated Core Network    EC Extended Coverage    EC-GSM Extended Coverage Global System for Mobile Communications    EC-RACH Extended Coverage Random Access Channel    eNB Evolved Node B    EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution    EGPRS Enhanced General Packet Radio Service    E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network    GSM Global System for Mobile Communications    GERAN GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network    GPRS General Packet Radio Service    HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request    IE Information Element    IoT Internet of Things    LTE Long-Term Evolution    MAC Media Access Control    MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme    MME Mobility Management Entity    MS Mobile Station    MSADCN Mobile Station Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection    MTC Machine Type Communications    NAS Non-Access Stratum    NB Narrow Band    NB-IoT Narrow Band-Internet of Things    PDN Packet Data Network    PLMN Public Land Mobile Network    RACH Random Access Channel    RAN Radio Access Network    RAT Radio Access Technology    RAU Routing Area Update    SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node    TS Technical Specification    UE User Equipment    UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network    WB-E-UTRAN Wideband Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network    WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access    WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave AccessExtended Coverage (EC): The general principle of extended coverage is that of using blind transmissions for the control channels and for the data channels to realize a target block error rate (BLER) performance for the channel of interest. In addition, for the data channels the use of blind transmissions assuming MCS-1 (i.e., the lowest modulation and coding scheme (MCS) supported in EGPRS today) is combined with HARQ retransmissions to realize the needed level of data transmission performance. Support for extended coverage is realized by defining different coverage classes. A different number of blind transmissions are associated with each of the coverage classes wherein extended coverage is associated with coverage classes for which multiple blind transmissions are needed (i.e., a single blind transmission is considered as the reference coverage). The number of total blind transmissions for a given coverage class can differ between different logical channels.
The 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has specified an optional feature called Dedicated Core Networks (DCNs) which enables an operator to deploy one or more DCNs where each DCN comprises one or more Core Network (CN) nodes (e.g., Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSNs)). Each DCN may be dedicated to serve a specific type(s) of subscriber(s), one or more Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and one or more Radio Access Technologies (RATs) (e.g., GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN), Wideband E-UTRAN (WB-E-UTRAN), and Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT)).
Moreover, as an enhancement, and in order to reduce the potential need for Non-Access Stratum (NAS) message re-routing when a mobile station (MS)/user equipment (UE)/wireless device first enters a cell within a new Routing Area or at initial attach, another feature called UE/MS Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection has also been specified by 3GPP. This feature relies on an indication (DCN-ID) sent from the MS/UE wherein the Radio Access Network (RAN) uses the indication to select the correct Dedicated Core Network (see 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 23.401 V 14.3.0 (2017-03) (General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access (Release 14))—the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference for all purposes). The selection of a DCN-ID by a MS/UE is guided by the MS's/UE's ranking of available PLMNs from most to least preferred (i.e., a MS/UE can be equipped with PLMN specific DCN-ID values). At the Radio Access Network (RAN) Meeting #75, Change Requests (CRs) were approved to introduce support for the MS/UE Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection feature for UTRAN and E-UTRAN. However, support for the MS Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection feature in GERAN is still lacking.
A problem with the current GERAN specification is that the MS is unaware of whether the network (cell) supports the MS Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection feature or not. Thus, a MS that supports and attempts to use the MS Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection feature in a cell that does not support this feature implies that there will be a mismatch in the signaling between the MS to the Base Station Subsystem (BSS). This will, in cells that do not support the MS Assisted Dedicated Core Network Selection feature, lead to reception by the BSS of uplink Radio Link Control (RLC)/Media Access Control (MAC) radio blocks from the MS that will not be understood by the BSS when they have been configured to include DCN-ID information. This in turn results in the inability of the BSS to extract a higher layer message (e.g., a NAS Routing Area Update (RAU) message) sent by the MS which results in NAS layer signalling failure. In view of the foregoing, it can be seen there is a need to address at least the aforementioned problems of the state-of-the art. The present disclosure addresses at least these problems.